WEEKLY ROUND UP: MAY 6

Afeni Shakur, activist, former Black Panther, and mother of Tupac Shakur, passed earlier this week. The National Alumni Association of the Black Panther Party released a statement honouring Shakur’s decades of activism and community work:

“Afeni had a deep and profound love for the community and a passion for the people that made her a dynamic organizer and dedicated activist. She embodied the spirit of what it meant to be a Black Panther, waking up at 5AM to cook for the free breakfast program, coordinating the day to day office duties and personally being in the field.

Afeni’s organizing laid the seeds for a legacy we still bear witness to today. While working with tenant organizations, Afeni led numerous rent strikes, resulting in several tenant owned buildings, some of which still exist today. She was instrumental in organizing health care professionals and patients at Lincoln Hospital and Harlem Hospital to develop the first patient bill of rights, a fore runner of the patient bill of rights now posted in every hospital.”
Full statement.

“There are people here in the Colonialism No More camp who have close family members who have been displaced and had their homes destroyed by the Fort McMurray fire. Our hearts and prayers are with all the communities who have been affected by the historic climate violence of recent days.

We understand only too well that for Indigenous Peoples the displacement and dispossession caused by the Fort McMurray fire follows generations of ongoing displacement and dispossession caused by colonialism, capitalist resource extraction, and the legal and political structures that uphold them.

We mourn for the lives and communities that have been shattered by this historic fire. We share updates from our loved ones in northern Alberta here at camp. We know it is possible to build relations of mutual respect across the divides that have been imposed on Indigenous and settler people.” Full statement.

Black Lives Matter-Toronto’s fundraiser for their Freedom School educational resources wraps up in two days.